Wire conveyor belts for conveying food and other products are well known in the art. Such conveyor belts are advantageous for food processing because they provide an open, flow-through mesh, high degree of flexibility, sanitary construction, simple installation and maintenance, and the ability to be positively driven with no tracking problems.
Prior art wire conveyor belts, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,871, include wire strands 12 (FIG. 1) having edge loops 14 which are interlocked to form a wire belt 10. In such prior art conveyor belts, the edge loops are formed prior to interlocking the wire strands and the looped ends are left open to enable the interlocking of the wire strands.
Many problems have been encountered in using the prior art wire conveyor belt having the open edge loops. For example, the open edge loops occasionally snag and interlock with each other as the wire belt is being unrolled for use. Also, two belts can not be run side by side or on top of each other with the edges touching each other without significant problems due to the open edge loops catching on each other. The open edge loops also expose a jagged edge of the wire strands and any burrs on the jagged edge can cause injury when installing or running the wire belt. Also, if the belt is installed and operated in the reverse direction, the edges of the open edge loops can cause damage to the belt and injury to the operator. Finally, the open edge loop is a weak spot on the wire conveyor belt which is susceptible to becoming unhooked or bent.
Accordingly, what is needed is a wire conveyor belt having closed edges formed by wire strands having closed edge loops which cannot easily catch other wire conveyor belts, fingers, or other objects in the processing area where the conveyor belt is used. Also, what is needed is a method of making a wire conveyor belt which will allow the conveyor belt to be formed with wire strands having edge loops closed after the strands are interlocked, to allow the edge loops to be nearly completely closed.